Four's a Crowd
by Lywnna
Summary: When the Mako only has room for three, a fourth passenger can cause... problems.


Shepard was pissed off.

As much as she wanted to believe she was only upset because Lizbeth Baynham hadn't told her the whole truth about her knowledge of the Thorian and what ExoGeni was really doing on Feros, she knew that wasn't true, Baynham had come clean when confronted. Shepard wanted to believe she was upset was because Lizbeth Baynham had shot at her, but Shepard's shields had easily absorbed the blow.

Shepard was pissed because Lizbeth Baynham was currently sitting in the lap of her Lieutenant.

The Mako was only designed for three, but if the person in the back seat currently hadn't been Krogan, then maybe Lizbeth could have squeezed in back there. But Wrex couldn't fit in either of the front seats of the Mako, and Shepard was just better trained at Mako driving than Kaidan Alenko. Alenko navigated, Wrex manned the cannon, and Shepard drove, that's just how they did things. There wasn't much navigating to be done when the only path opened to them was a long, straight stretch of highway hundreds of feet above the ground, so Lizbeth Baynham had to squeeze into the front seat with Alenko.

_Should have brought Tali. _Shepard thought. _Knew we'd be fighting Geth down here, why didn't I bring the quarian instead of the krogan?_

Shepard nearly scraped the top of the Mako with the raising garage door as she pressed her foot on the gas to begin the journey. Lizbeth drew in breath deeply, anticipating an impact, which irritated Shepard even more.

She afforded herself a quick glance to her right. Alenko, to his fcredit, did not appear pleased with the situation. Lizbeth sat with her back to the Mako window and her left arm draped around Kaidan's neck. Alenko had little choice but to have his right arm around Lizbeth's waist, steadying her against the swaying Mako that jumped with every rock Shepard couldn't avoid. His lips were set to a tight grimace and his head was turned slightly to his left, in an attempt to keep his eyes diverted from Lizbeth's chest, placed right in front of his eyeline.

Lizbeth yelped as the Mako's front left tire hit a watermelon-sized chunk of concrete that had fallen off the barrier of the highway. Her head banged loudly into the ceiling as she clung even tighter to Alenko's neck. Shepard could feel her stony expression turn into a scowl as out of the corner of her eye she saw Lizbeth curl her calves under Alenko's knees to steady herself further.

_This is stupid, Shepard_, she told herself, attempting to control her emotions. _Can't have the girl getting a concussion_. _She doesn't have a choice. And besides, it's not like you have anything to be jealous about. A little battlefield flirting doesn't mean you have Alenko's balls in a vice._

"Incoming, Commander!" Kaidan's voice shook Shepard out of her melancholy thoughts. "Squad of Geth, twelve o'clock."

"Cannon ready." Wrex's baritone bellowed from behind their heads. Shepard cursed and hit the Mako's boosters, sailing the vehicle over the two rockets that had been ready to hurl into the front of the Mako seconds ago. Shepard slammed on the breaks as they landed, causing Lizbeth to nearly fly into the windshield, but Alenko's arms caught her and pulled her back before she was hurt.

For a few tense moments, Shepard manned the boosters while Wrex shot at the Geth rocket troopers, destroyers and then slowly wore down the shields of the Collossus. Lizbeth was terrified, not having seen heavy battle before, and hid her head in the nape of Alenko's neck. For once, Shepard was grateful for the Geth, they gave her an excuse to focus on the battle and not notice what Lizbeth was doing with Alenko.

"All clear, Commander." Wrex spoke as the sounds of battle were replaced with silence. Shepard turned and looked at Baynham, who was looking like little more than a child curled up in Alenko's arms. Shepard was caught somewhere between annoyance and sympathy. This was obviously too much for a civilian like her to handle, but there was little choice now. She couldn't have stayed at the ExoGeni building, she would have surely died from another pack of wandering Varren, if starvation or rubble didn't get her first.

Shepard just wished Baynham didn't have to be so damn vulnerable while curled up in Kaidan's arms.

Alenko turned and looked at Shepard. She suddenly realized that at least a dozen seconds had passed since Wrex had given the all clear while she did nothing but stare at Alenko and the terrified woman he was holding. Kaidan's voice was tense, and Shepard wondered if she imagined the hint of apology she heard as he spoke. "We'd better go, Commander. Never know when another drop-ship is coming." Shepard was grateful that her helmet hid most of her expression as she realized she'd been staring.

Shepard nodded curtly at Alenko as she refocused her attention on driving, pressing her foot onto the gas and this time taking more care at avoiding the rubble in the road. This only caused the Mako to sway more, again forcing Alenko to hold onto Baynham even tighter to keep her from flying all over the cabin.

For a moment, she thought they were in the clear and would soon be at the shelter the surviving ExoGeni employees had set up midway between Zhu's Hope and the main company building. But when they were almost in sight of the garage door, Shepard's heart sank as she saw another blockade of Geth appear behind barriers in their way.

Shepard hit the boosters in an attempt to jump a pair of rockets speeding toward them, but cursed loudly when she saw that a third rocket couldn't be avoided. The entire Mako shuddered as the shields barely absorbed the blow.

"Shields are low!" Kaidan's voice cut through the last rumbles of explosion.

Shepard made a decision. "We're taking them out on foot. Baynham, stay in the Mako unless it starts catching on fire. Wrex, Alenko, barrier up as soon as you step out."

The Mako's shields groaned as they absorbed a few bullets and Shepard barely managed to jump over a proton blast from the colossus. She slammed on the breaks when the Mako was in a semi-hidden location behind a fallen concrete pillar, facing the doors toward the Geth. She hit the boosters one last time and as the Mako jumped over two more rockets, Shepard opened her door and formed her biotic barrier. As the Mako touched ground, she and Wrex stepped out of the vehicle. She knew it would take Kaidan longer to dislodge himself from his seat and out from under Lizbeth.

Wrex and Shepard took cover behind the barrier but cringed as stray bullets pierced the hull of the mostly hidden Mako. "I'll draw their fire! Wrex, kill them, give Alenko cover to get out here!" she yelled, then popped out from behind her barrier while cocking her shotgun. Taking aim at a rocket trooper, Shepard stayed out of cover for a few seconds, until she saw the colossus and rocket troopers all taking aim at her. She barely had time to duck back into cover as multiple projectiles exploded nearby. She felt her biotic barrier take a beating, but no debris pierced her shields. Opening her eyes, she saw Wrex taking his turn drawing fire now, his assault rifle firing rapidly. No sign of Alenko yet.

Shepard again popped out from behind the concrete and focused fire on Wrex's target. Within seconds one of the rocket troopers was down, and both managed to duck back down before another barrage of missiles slammed against the concrete and into the wall near them. The Mako was smoking lightly, but the cabin area seemed relatively unharmed, for now.

"Alenko! Status!" Shepard yelled, a small part of her worrying that he hadn't appeared from the other side of the Mako yet. Just then he ran around the nose of the vehicle and took cover between Wrex and Shepard.

"Sorry Commander, getting out of the Mako was… complicated." Shepard shook off her annoyance, knowing it wasn't at her subordinate, but the civilian still in the Mako.

"Taking down their shields would be useful, Alenko." Shepard said as both she and Wrex popped back up and focused fire on the second of the troopers. Kaidan stood and used his omni-tool to override the shields of the two nearby rocket troopers, and before the three had to duck back down, another Geth was gone.

Shepard cursed, and this time when the rockets hit, her barrier was gone and shields were low, so debris knocked out her remaining shields and a large rock slammed into her arm. "That'll leave a mark." She mumbled, and pressed her shield boosters. Moments later, a barrage from the three took out the final trooper.

"On the colossus now! Take out his shields as soon as possible!" Shepard yelled, knowing even as she gave the order, the others already knew what to do. Alenko was her lieutenant, and therefore he came with her everywhere, even when their mission was as simple as speaking to someone on the Citadel. It was just logical he would come as the next highest ranking member of the Normandy's Alliance crew after the XO. It had nothing to do with the rapport she'd developed with Alenko, she told herself, though part of her knew that was bullshit. The third spot in the squad varied, but about as often as not, Shepard brought Wrex. Something about the presence of the large and powerful, yet quiet and often intelligent Krogan resonated with her.

The three of them used all of their biotic powers alongside their weapons in the next few moments, with Kaidan also using his tech abilities. The colossus was a formidable opponent, but timing was on their side, and it only took a couple of rounds of ducking behind the fallen concrete that was their protection and standing up to assault it before their enemies shields were gone and it had begun to smoke and cough.

_Almost there._ Shepard thought. _One more spray of shotgun pellets and… all right one more…_ Shepard saw the blue light of the Colossus arming up to throw a rocket at her, but she was sure she could beat the timing. It was almost in pieces, almost destroyed. She saw the blue ball hurling towards her and out of the corner of her eye saw Wrex and Kaidan duck back down, but Shepard was determined. She pulled the trigger on her shotgun one more time and as the crackling blue projectile began to fill her vision she also saw the colossus begin to fall to its mechanical knees. Shepard let her legs collapse in an attempt to fall faster than the Colossus' projectile could reach her, but she knew she was too late. Her last thought was to renew her biotic barrier in an attempt to stave off the worst before everything in her vision went blue. Just before she felt the impact, Shepard felt something yank at her arm and pull her just enough out of the way that the wake of the colossus' torpedo threw her back even harder, and she landed in a tangled pile with what had pulled her over in the first place: Kaidan. The back of her helmet hit the concrete ground with a loud thud, and Shepard's world went black.

Only a few moments must have passed when she felt Alenko grabbing her shoulders and shaking her gently, calling her name in a slightly panicked tone. Shepard groaned and shook her head, slowly moving to rest on her elbows. Kaidan had managed to dislodge himself from under her and was now leaning over her with a worried look on his face, while Wrex stood nearby, looking down at the two of them. The nearby area was filled with even more rubble than before, some of which was still on top of Shepard, but all three of them managed to come out relatively unharmed.

"Status report, Alenko?" Shepard mumbled, trying to sit up with the help of her Lieutenant.

"Well, I'll need to do some repairs on the Mako when we get to cover, and we've got one commanding officer who may have a mild concussion due to her own stubbornness and recklessness. Otherwise, fine Ma'am." Kaidan said, his voice tinged with a hint of sarcasm, trying to make a point.

"Understood, and we have one Lieutenant who deserves a commendation for saving his C.O. Wrex, how's the civvy?"

"Looks fine, except she's crying louder than before." Wrex said, stepping over the two humans still on the ground to make his way into the Mako.

Kaidan stood as Wrex closed the door to the backseat of the Mako, and offered his hand to Shepard. She took it, a bit sheepishly, and allowed him to help pull her to her feet. "_Are_ you all right Shepard?" Kaidan said, real concern in his voice this time.

"I'm fine," she said, then realized she was still gripping Kaidan's hand and the adrenaline rush wearing off was causing her to tremble slightly. "Thank you." She said. "That was stupid of me, and you saved me. I almost had my head taken off." Shepard squeezed Kaidan's hand for a moment, and relaxed her grip, only to have Kaiden squeeze her hand in return.

"You're welcome. I'll always have your back," he said with a small smile. Shepard returned the expression with a half smile of her own, and Kaidan released her hand, both suddenly realizing how personal they'd just been. "Uh. Ma'am," he added, with a bit more military formality. They both turned and looked at the Mako and Shepard sighed softly.

"You sure you're all right ma'am? I mean, if you're not feeling up to driving, I could…" the remainder of Kaidan's offer remained unspoken as Shepard realized what Alenko was really saying. Grinning only slightly, Shepard turned and looked at Alenko.

"You're right Lieutenant. I _am_ feeling a bit shaky, I'm afraid I'll have to ride shotgun with Miss Baynham until we drop her off." Smiles spread across both of their faces as Shepard took a step past Alenko. Their arms brushed lightly, and even through her armor, Shepard thought she could feel his warmth.

"Aye Aye Ma'am." Kaidan said, opening the driver's door to the Mako. "And thank you."


End file.
